Buddy Boy
by TheatreBrat
Summary: I thought there should be more Anybodys fics, so this is a few scenes from her POV, and occasionally Anita's. Slight AU. Rated to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is going to be slightly AU, because it's based on a production of WSS rather than the movie. The only significant differences are Anybodys' actions in Chapter 3, and the ending.

_Oh yeah. I own nothing._

Chapter One: Cracked 

"Meet Tony and me at the gym at ten. And walk tall!"

"We always walk tall. We're Jets!"

"The greatest!"

_Yeah_, Anybodys thought._ The greatest. That's right, we are._

She grinned, and went to find some decent clothes for the dance.

At ten, Jets and Sharks filed into the gym, glaring suspiciously at each other. Anybodys scowled at Bernardo, who comprehensively ignored her, looking as she did like a very junior member of the Jets. It would have taken Bernardo a second glance to notice that she was a girl, and he didn't bother to look at her for that long.

Adults ranged around the walls tutted disapprovingly at the obvious segregation between the two gangs. One particularly enthusiastic man tried to mix them up, forcing them into a circle. Anybodys stepped around a Shark girl's fluffed-up pink skirt, twisting her mouth in distaste. Pepe, Bernardo's right-hand man, saw her expression and tried to hide a grin. Anybodys scowled at him, and smiled in satisfaction when he turned away. She didn't see that he was laughing at her.

The gangs quickly separated again, and Riff and his girl led the Jets in a dance carefully calculated to show off to the Sharks. Anybodys joined in enthusiastically, every contemptuous glance from a Shark spurring her on.

The Sharks returned the favour, dancing exuberantly, yelling and catcalling. Anybodys watched Bernardo and Anita, separated from the rest of the group and so caught up in each other that they could've been anywhere.

Around Anybodys, the rest of the Jets snorted and muttered scornful comments, but for once she didn't join in. She watched Anita, standing straighter and taller and… stronger – yes, that was it – stronger than any of the Jets.

The Sharks finished dancing, clearly thinking they'd beaten the Jets at their own game, and Anita was swallowed by the whole laughing mass, effortlessly belonging.

Anybodys glanced down at herself, at her clothes desperately trying to look like the boys', her skinny body desperately trying to be as powerful as theirs…

Just for a moment, she thought, just maybe, she was missing something… but she shrugged it off, stuck her tongue out at where she thought Anita was, and tried to push her way into the group of Jet boys.


	2. Splintered

_A/N: Yep, it's the rumble. R&R please!_ Chapter 2: Splintering 

Big Deal shoved Anybodys back through a hole in the fence. He didn't look back, didn't check that she was staying where she'd been put, but the tomboy was actually sort of relieved. Much as she would love the boys to think she was tough enough to join the fight, she knew – no, she wouldn't admit that, even to herself. No, she just didn't want to get in the way.

The fight began, and Anybodys darted back and forth, yelling support for Action and insults at the Sharks, her voice mingling with the other Jets'.

She wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but the two-man fistfight suddenly escalated into an all-out rumble. Convinced the Sharks were about to be comprehensively run out of town for good, Anybodys redoubled her yelling, so busy trying to keep track of every Jet and Shark that she forgot about the possibility of joining the fight.

Something glinted, and Anybodys' eyes widened. Bernardo had drawn a flick-knife. A frighteningly triumphant grin on his face, he traced patterns in the air with the blade.

Anybodys looked expectantly at Riff, who pulled out his own knife. Anybodys grinned, and her yell of encouragement smashed through the deathly hush that had fallen over the yard. A couple of Jet boys looked over at her, mirroring her grin, and the entire gang took up her yell.

Anybodys could have exploded with joy. They had taken up _her_ encouragement, _she_ had started this. Riff caught her eye and smiled, then charged at Bernardo. She watched, knowing that she had started this, that finally, she was a part of the gang.

Bernardo lunged at Riff.

Riff fell to the ground.

He lay, not moving.

Anybodys barely noticed the other boys fighting. She stared at Riff, willing him to move, knowing that this was just a ploy, he was fooling Bernardo, any second now he would open his eyes, and get up, and chase the Sharks away, any second now, he'll be alright, please…

A police siren wailed, and the boys scattered, leaving Tony bent over the two bodies on the ground.

Acting purely on the instincts wrought from a life on the streets, Anybodys ran up to Tony, pulling him away from the bod – away from the yard, trying not to remember what she'd so proud of.

_I started this. I caused this._

_He's dead._


	3. Broken

Chapter 3:Broken 

_You done good, buddy boy._

The words kept echoing around Anybodys' head. You done good. They didn't blame her, they still accepted her, she was part of the gang. Buddy boy. She grinned. If Action treated her like that, then the rest would _have_ to let her in the gang – really in the gang, not just hanging around the edges.

She plonked herself in the middle of the group where they had gathered in Doc's shop. The boys barely noticed her presence, preoccupied with Riff's death and Bernardo's. Tension within the group was running so high that even Anybodys, not regarded as the most perceptive member of the group, knew that something was going to happen when Anita walked in the door. She tensed, moving almost unconsciously away from the Shark girl.

"I have a message for Tony," Anita said, her voice barely steady. The boys taunted her, and Anybodys joined in, until she saw the signs of recent tears on Anita's face, and remembered her laughter, dancing with Bernardo.

When the boys moved in on Anita, pushing and prodding her, Anybodys joined the circle, hoping the Jets wouldn't notice that her hands were steadying rather than shoving.

Action started it, grabbing Anita, making the attack sexual. Action – the boy who called her buddy boy, who accepted her into his gang. She looked around, waiting for one of the others to stop Action, but one by one they joined in. For the first time, Anybodys feared the Jets. She ran, yelling something going for help, finding Tony, she didn't know.

Anita watched her go, and Anybodys saw contempt in her face, contempt for this cowardly little girl running from her own gang. Anybodys looked away first.

She ran into the cellar, grabbing at Doc's sleeve, gabbling incomprehensibly. It didn't matter, because by then Doc could hear Anita's screams. With Anybodys in tow, he ran up the stairs, yelling at the Jets, furious.

Anita got up and brushed herself off.

Anybodys stared at the floor, suddenly horribly of her own girls' body. She'd spent years being relentlessly called a girl, but for the first time, she felt really separate from the boys.

Anita snarled her message at them all. She met Anybodys' eyes.

"If one of you was lying in the street bleeding," she almost whispered, "I'd walk by and spit on you!"

She stalked away, and the boys filed out, ashamed. One looked back, checking on Anybodys, including her, and she didn't notice.

Arms wrapped protectively around herself, Anybodys stared at the floor for a very long time.


	4. Picking Up The Pieces

_A/N: Last chapter! Baby John's actions in this chapter are in the show script rather than the movie._ Chapter 4: Picking Up The Pieces 

Jets and Sharks faced each other over Tony's body. Maria was yelling, screaming, pointing a gun at anyone in sight, threatening to shoot them all, blaming every one of them for Tony's death, and Bernardo's, and Riff's.

Anybodys stared at the Puerto Ricans, watching them reel in shock and grief. Just like the Jets.

_This is stupid_, she thought. She moved forward a little, distancing herself from the Jets. On the other side of the group, Anita noticed, and nodded slightly.

_She understands_, Anita thought. _Finally._

Slowly, by some unconscious consensus, two Jet boys and two Sharks moved towards Tony. Maria moved away, kneeling on the ground. The boys picked Tony's body up and gently, silently carried it away.

The rest of the group followed, leaving Maria alone. Anybodys hung back, wanting to help the Puerto Rican girl, but not knowing how to. She'd almost decided to go over to Maria when she felt a gentle hand on her arm. She looked up, and Anita murmured, "Leave her."

You're just a kid, Anita wanted to say. What could you possibly think you can do to help?

Keeping a steadying hand on the skinny tomboy's arm, the Puerto Rican girl guided the most loyal of the Jets away.

They reached the boundary between Jet and Shark territory, and the group started to split up.

Anita glanced back at Maria. Baby John had turned back, and was draping Maria's shawl around her shoulders. She touched his hand in thanks, and he nodded, and left.

Anybodys looked Anita in the eye for the first time.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, and ran off before Anita could answer.

_It's not alright_, Anita thought.

She watched the gangs make their way home – the boy who'd comforted Maria, the boys who'd carried Tony's body together, the one girl who'd apologised for an entire town…

_No, it's not alright._

_But it's a start. _


End file.
